ENGL 2150 / Spr. 2013 Baruch College / Camus and the Absurd I
I. In-Class Writing: Examples of the Absurd
- Make sure to begin the statements/sentences actively (with the term/terms all the information in the sentence is/will reffering/refer to) – no prepositional phrases, no overt amount of pronouns (this is expository).
- Write out a few sentences that provide examples (pop cultural – movies, songs, stories, etc., your own, actual, spectacles, weather, etc….of occurrences of the Absurd and state what makes them/it absurd. Be detailed, specific and necessary in your explanation and choosing.
II. Notes and Discussion and Questions regarding Camus’ “An Absurd Reasoning” // The absurdity of Hurricane Sandy and how it compares to A.C.’s work.
- Initial questions: what does Camus mean by the absolute? What is the opposite of something Absolute. (Think One Truth vs. a lot of little truths)
- What does Camus mean by absurdity, the absurd? How does he define the absurd?
- Review: “My reasoning wants to be faithful to the evidence that aroused it. It is that divorce between the mind that desires and the world that disappoints, my nostalgia for unity, this fragmented universe and the contradiction that binds them together.”
Key term, here, is divorce, the divorce of the world the individual lives in and the rationality that connects the individual to her living.
Human Individual ((the absurd)) The World
(both planet and humans, living collectively, i.e. societies) ENGL 2150 / Spr. 2013 Baruch College / Camus and the Absurd I
- “And these two certainties—my appetite for the absolute and for unity and the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle.”
- “Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death—and I refuse suicide.”
- How can the latest natural (act of the absurd) disaster help us to better and more personally understand Camus’ words, above?
- For Camus, we learn what thinking is (critically, revoltingly, revolutionarily, existentially) and then we are able to do other things. He writes, “Thinking is learning all over again how to see, directing one’s consciousness, making of every image a privileged place. In other words, phenomenology declines to explain the world, it wants to be merely a description of actual experience.”
- The three main components to Camus’s essay/theory are: (1) consciousness, an awareness of self and the world connected to an awareness of the absurd, and (2) freedom, both of the body/mind and that which is relegated to the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural spheres; disacknowledging or disavowing the freedom that each individual possesses inherently is absurd and indirectly suicidal, and (3) revolt, being aware of the limits that hold the individual back from what the individual wants, that nearly all of existence is a consistent revolt, not an avoidance, but a revolt . . .
- Last sentence: “But the point is to live.” How can we acknowledge this as the concluding statement? Why does it make sense that this would be the last line?
- Who is responsible for the Absurd? What might Camus say to that question?
III. *Handout, for summaries (from e-mail/blog)
- Go over, correct together. ENGL 2150 / Spr. 2013 Baruch College / Camus and the Absurd I
- Questions?
- Re-writes
IV. Assignment (for Wednesday)
- Revise the summary handout and bring it back to class on Wednesday 4/17 to hand in.
- Re-read Camus’s essay and bring in at least a comment or question to be asked/delivered to the class.